The present invention relates to a plasma production apparatus of an analytical apparatus such as plasma reactor of etching, deposition, or the like, plasma source mass spectrometer as a quantitative analysis of elements, or the like and, more particularly, to a plasma production apparatus using microwave energy at an increased power level which is suitable for the above types of apparatus.
Conventional plasma production apparatuses using the microwave power have been disclosed in the following literatures.
(1) THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, Vol. 36, No. 3, March 1965, pages 294-298; PA0 (2) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. PS-3, No. 2, June 1975, pages 55-59; PA0 (3) THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, Vol. 39, No. 3, March 1968, pages 295-297; PA0 (4) THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, Vol. 41, No. 10, October 1970, pages 1431-1433; PA0 (5) JAPANESE JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, Vol. 16, No. 11, November 1977, pages 1993-1998; and the like.
In the literatures (1) to (3) of the conventional techniques mentioned above, since a coaxial cable is used to transfer the microwave power, no consideration is made with respect to the point to realize a large power and no solution is given to the problems such as high density and large-diameter of the plasma including the stability in the case of the large power. On the other hand, in the literatures (4) and (5) of the conventional techniques mentioned above, a sufficient consideration is not made with regard to the points such as utilizing efficiency of the microwave, radial distribution of the plasma, and the like and no solution is given to the problems such as production efficiency and uniformity of the plasma and the like.